My idea for a "powered" aquarium siphon/gravel cleaner

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Carefree_Dude

Piranha
MFK Member
Feb 4, 2011
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Portland, OR
i have a gravel cleaner that connects to the sink. it is very slow however. Here is my plan to make it powered:

1: get a cheap water pump
2: Cut hose from current gravel cleaner. use hose barbs/hose clamps to connect each end of hose to water pump
3: use a squeeze primer to draw water from the aquarium to a pump, so the pump doesn't run dry.

My main concern is that gunk from the aquarium may clog the pump. a filter sock that could catch the big things on the end of the siphon could help fix this.


Any opinions? would this work?
 
Sounds ok to me but you need a pump that doesn't move a lot of water. Otherwise, you will drain your tank pretty quick requiring more water to be replaced. Although not a bad thing.

Also make sure there is a large screen of some sort inside at the top of the gravel vac in case a fish happeneds to wonder in thinking its shelter... its happened to me. I had fish go right out my window through the hose. He did survive thankfully.
 
Carfree_Dude;4915565; said:
i have a gravel cleaner that connects to the sink. it is very slow however. Here is my plan to make it powered:

1: get a cheap water pump
2: Cut hose from current gravel cleaner. use hose barbs/hose clamps to connect each end of hose to water pump
3: use a squeeze primer to draw water from the aquarium to a pump, so the pump doesn't run dry.

My main concern is that gunk from the aquarium may clog the pump. a filter sock that could catch the big things on the end of the siphon could help fix this.


Any opinions? would this work?
Click to expand...


The Reason that it's so slow is because it's connected to the sinks faucet... Just cut or remove the end that fits the faucet and then run it to a drain of some sort in the floor... Is it long enough to run to your basement? Or don't you have one? Either way, allowing the end of the hose to sit a few feet or more below the tank will increase the gravity draw significantly enough that you will have no need to use a powered siphon... I have a 75fter that reaches every tank in my house. 1/2" ID hose and a 15" Gravel tube. At the end that water drains out of, I have connected a standard garden hose that connects upto a valve that is sonnected to my untility sink in my laundry/ untility room. Works perfectly.

Let me know, and I can upload some pics of it all. It's prety simple. I used a plastic $1.50 or < coupler to connect the cut off 3.5ft garden hose to the end of siphon (python hose) hose...
 
Small cheap HOB canister filter that you then hang on the front of the tank. Attach a hose and gravel vac to the pickup and move the pickup around. No wasted water that way. You could also run the discharge to a long hose and run it outside for powered water changes.
 
For starters I'm lucky enough to have a "WELL" hence good water(atleast where I am). I do something similar...

I have a wet dry filter under my tank. I put a T in the PVC and a ball valve a foot up from the pump. Attached to the ball valve is a 1.5" python hose with a female connector. I run a syphon hose to that ball valve directly to my bathtub. Then I run a hose from my sink to fill. The trick is getting an even trade with water exchange. Once I do...I put the timer on my stove (lol) for 20 mins and check on the tank periodically. Once the tub is full I have calculated around a 30% WC. This took little effort to master. I first did this without filling at the same time to see where the water level should be in the tub for a 30% WC luck for me it was about half way. The ball valve is the key here for control. I wouldn't recommend this with gravel tanks though because you need to gravel vac. One more kick ass reason to go barebottom! Good luck with your idea. I think the manual syphon pump was smart so that you don't run the pump dry.
 
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